Intended Major and College Applicants

Ivy Coach was recently featured on the pages of “The Daily Pennsylvanian” on the topic of declaring a major when applying.

Ivy Coach was recently featured on the pages of “The Daily Pennsylvanian,” the newspaper of the University of Pennsylvania. The piece, authored by SophIia Leporte, is entitled “For College students, no rush to choose or stick to a major” and, naturally, it focuses on the percentage of applicants who select intended majors, which majors they tend to choose, etc. For the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Arts & Sciences, the most popular intended major, as declared by applicants, is…drum roll please…Undecided. Duh.

But that’s not the wisest of moves. As we articulate in the piece, “Brian Taylor, director of the college counseling practice Ivy Coach, however, believes that students should indicate a major on their application. ‘It’s important to have an angle while applying to a selective college,’ Taylor said. ‘You should focus on a major to create that angle if you’re pretty certain that you want to study it.'” Too many applicants select Undecided. And in a holistic admissions process in which standing out from the pack is what it’s all about, doing what so many others are doing is rarely the answer. No matter what any admissions officer at any highly selective college should suggest to the contrary.

That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be completely, 100% intent on majoring in this discipline. But too many students don’t know what they want to do with the rest of their lives. Have some direction. Have some idea. Guide admissions officers to understand just how you intend to make your mark on this world. It’s quite obvious when you think about it in this way. Still Undecided? We didn’t think so.